Zinke, a former Montana congressman and Navy SEAL, oversaw much of the Trump administration’s energy dominance agenda, including the ramp up of public lands oil and gas leasing and the rollback of environmental protections. The Interior Department includes the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service, which together manage 330 million acres of public lands, mostly in the West. Under Zinke, the Interior Department opened up large swaths of the West to oil and gas drilling, rolled back a suite of climate change policies, and abandoned a number of collaborative land management agreements spearheaded by the department under former President Barack Obama.

As Democrats prepared to take control of the House of Representatives in January, they had promised to investigate Zinke’s record, particularly his ties to fossil fuel industries. Raúl Grijalva, the Democratic representative from Arizona who will take over as chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, called for Zinke’s resignation in November. “We’ve reached a point that Zinke needs to move on,” he told High Country News last month. “There’s no question that the extractive industries have had a free rein under Zinke.”

Zinke’s resignation drew a mixed response from Westerners. “Ryan Zinke came to the Interior Department with an ambitious vision for overseeing the nation’s great natural resources, but he ultimately broke his contract with the American people,” Land Tawney, CEO and president of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, said in a statement. “We will not stand for an administration that values the priorities of big business and a few deep pocketed individuals over the will of the citizenry.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, applauded his work at the department. “He has been a strong partner for Western states and for Alaska, in particular,” she said in a statement. “After years of frustration with the Department, he came in and took a very different approach — he listened to us, built a great team, and worked with us to advance our priorities.”

Until a replacement is named, Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt will lead the Interior Department. Bernhardt, a longtime oil and gas lobbyist, has faced accusations of conflicts of interest related to his former employment. Under Bernhardt, the Bureau of Land Management eased approval of a pipeline in Southern California proposed by Cadiz Inc., on behalf of which Bernhardt has lobbied in the past.

State Rep. Bobby Gonzales shook his head from side to side after listening to all the suggestions about how to meet a judge's order to provide more resources to New Mexico children who, in the court's view, are not receiving a good public education. "About 15 different ideas," the Democrat from Taos said following a hearing on the topic last week in the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich and two other Democrats want a public report on the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Heinrich says that by not saying Saudi Arabia was responsible for Kashogghi’s death, the "White House is attempting to cover up a murder.”
Khashoggi was murdered in Istanbul at the Saudi Arabian Consulate in October.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The federal government is proceeding with plans for a December auction of oil and gas drilling leases on thousands of acres of land in the Greater Chaco region. A comment period on the proposal opened today and will continue through October 31, despite a pending Senate bill that would protect the area, and without a cultural review and consultation promised by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

Given the fire hose of news from Washington, D.C. every day, New Mexicans can be forgiven if they miss stories about environmental overhauls from the White House and funding mishaps in Congress. But ignorance isn’t bliss when it comes to climate-changing methane emissions, less money for public lands and parks or the intergenerational impacts of mercury exposure.

State Rep. Bobby Gonzales shook his head from side to side after listening to all the suggestions about how to meet a judge's order to provide more resources to New Mexico children who, in the court's view, are not receiving a good public education.